Kind Gestures & Gift Ideas

Kind Gestures and Gift Ideas

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” William Penn

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that you do for someone that make the biggest impact. This is not about giving an expensive gift, it’s about showing someone you’re thinking of them and that you care.

Gift Ideas

Rescue Remedy

Rescue Remedy is a wonderfully practical item to have in times of grief and a thoughtful gift. It can give relief in cases of emotional shock, tearfulness, grief, feelings of desperation, mild anxiety and sleeplessness due to stress. All pharmacies with a natural / homeopathic section stock it. Rescue Remedy is not recommended for recovering alcoholics in the liquid form, as it contains a small element of alcohol as a preservative. In those cases the tablets are preferable.

A Living Plant

Give a beautiful plant to your grieving friend. A young tree or something more suited to their garden / living space. The grieving person can plant it and care for it in memory of the deceased. The plant can serve as a living symbol of their recovery as it grows and renews itself.

A Notebook

Give an empty notebook to a grieving friend, for them to write their feelings in. Best is an A4 size, with pages that are easy to tear out, e.g. with a ring binder. Personalize it with a kind note / poem / picture on the inside cover or first page.

Scrap Book

For those who enjoy arts and crafts, putting together old photo’s in a scrap book can give a family the opportunity to get together and reminisce. Putting a scrapbook together is fun on your own or as a group effort. To inspire your creativity, type the word ‘scrapbook’ into Google to find some beautiful examples of what other people have done.

Kind Gestures

Create a Memorial on Facebook

Create a page in memory of the deceased on Facebook.

Have an Informal Gathering

Suggest a small informal gathering of people who were closest to the deceased and do something creative in honour the deceased. You can do this any time you feel ready, on the anniversary of the deceased’s death or on the deceased’s birthday when they are sorely missed or (if they were cremated) on the day you scatter the ashes.

examples:

Meet at a nearby river with a few roses or freshly picked flowers. Let each friend take a turn saying what they miss about the deceased as they throw rose petals or a single flower into the river. Give each person a chance to give thanks for the time they had with the deceased and kindness/love/lessons that the deceased brought to their lives. Watch silently for a moment as the petals float away symbolic of the loved one’s transition from your world and the perfect continuation of nature and beauty without them.

Organise a few helium balloons, and ask each person write a note to the deceased. Let each person tie their note to the string on their balloon, or carefully write on the balloons with a permanent marker. Release them into the sky one by one or together, giving thanks for the time you all shared with the deceased. We suggest latex balloons as they are bio-degradable, but they don’t last as long as foil, so you will either need to get balloons on the day you plan to release them, or rent a canister so the balloons are freshly filled.

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Quotes

"Fly, fly little wing, fly beyond imagining. Past the planets and the stars, leave this lonely world of ours. Escape the sorrow and the pain. And fly again"

Celine Dion

“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.”

Ernest Hemingway, a few weeks before committing suicide.

“Life is like the desert, life the solitude, death joins us to the great majority”

Edward Young, 1683 –1765

"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”

Og Mandino

“The soul takes flight to a world that is invisible, and there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.”

Lady Jane Grey, the movie

"What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes part of us."

Helen Keller

“Across the years I will walk with you - in deep green forests, on shores of sand and when our time on earth is through, in heaven too, you will have my hand!”

Robert Sexton

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it"

W.M. Lewis

"The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation."

Herman Hesse

"God saw you getting tired, when a cure was not to be, so he wrapped his arms around you, and whispered - come to me."

"It is said that life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life"

Terry Pratchett

"When we are forgotten, we cease to exist."

Lady of the lake, from the movie 'Merlin'

"The harder you fall the higher you bounce"

Doug Horton

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

Richard Bach, (Illusions)

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."

Washington Irving

“It's natures way of telling you to slow down.”

Anonymous, (Cited as Madison Avenues latest definition of death.)

"Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality."

Jean Paul Richter

"Where there is sorrow there is holy ground."

Oscar Wilde

“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re still alive, it isn’t.”